AQW 18864/22-27

Mrs Michelle Guy
Alliance Party
Lagan Valley

Tabled Date: 26/11/2024
Answered On Date: 06/12/2024
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education whether his Department has provided schools with guidance on requests from private educational psychologists to observe pupils in schools and for teachers to complete paperwork for assessments.

Answer:

The Education Authority (EA) issued guidance to schools on the use of educational psychology private reports as part of the Special Educational Needs (SEN) & Medical Categories Training in 2018, which has been shared on request and at training sessions where required since then.

The guidance notes that the school is not obliged to permit any private assessor into the school to undertake an observation, that this is at the discretion of the principal and each situation needs to be considered on an individual basis.